In the
north of England, a large number of the nobility, gentry, and people remained firm in their
attachment to the old faith.

When the beautiful but unfortunate
Mary
Queen of Scots, having fled from her own country, came to England, put herself under the protection of
Elizabeth, her cousin, but also
enemy and rival. She was devotedly attached to the Catholic religion, and
Catholics
considered to have a better claim to the crown of England than Elizabeth, as the latter was illegitimate according to the views of the Catholic
church, and had been bastardised by Act of Parliament. Mary was confined for a
short time in Bolton Castle, Wensleydale, under the care of Lord Scrope.
Christopher Norton
was enrolled a knight and in Lord Scrope's guard at Bolton Castle during the
imprisonment there of Mary. In his confession before his trial
he relates one of his adventures at Bolton which is characteristic. One day in
winter, when the Queen had been knitting at the window-side, after the window
was covered she rose and went to the fireside. She looked for one of her
servants to hold her work, and as they were all gone down into the kitchen to
bring up the meat, she called young Norton to her, who was then standing by
looking at Lord Scrope and Sir Francis Knollys playing at chess. Lady Scrope
was also there, with many other gentlemen in the room. But cautious Sir Francis had an eye on the bird he guarded so closely, and when he saw young
Norton
holding the Queen's work, when he had finished his game, he called
Norton's
captain to him, and asked if Norton was ever on guard, and being told he was, he
bid him watch no more "For the Queen would make a fool of him!" (Yorkshire Anecdotes).

ThenceMary was removed to Sheffield Castle, and afterwards still further south to
Tutbury, and lastly to Fotheringay, in Northamptonshire.

In the late autumn of 1569, in the eleventh year of
Queen
Elizabeth's reign, insurrection, known as the "Rising of the North" took place
at the head of which were Thomas Percy, 7º Earl of Northumberland and
Charles Neville, 6º Earl of
Westmorland. The aim of this movement was to re-establish the religion of their
ancestors, to remove Evil Counsellors, to release the Scottish Queen from her unjust
imprisonment, and to restore the Duke of Norfolk and
other peers to their liberty and to the Queen's
favor. Northumberland and
Westmoreland, both ardent Catholics and declared friends of Mary, revealed their views and objects to the most trusty of their
adherents, George and Christopher Neville, the two uncles of Westmoreland, to
Leonard and Edward Dacre, to Egremont
Ratcliffe, a brother of the Earl of Sussex, to the
Nortons, Markenfields,
Tempests, Swinburnes, and other gentlemen of wealth and influence. From
all they received promises of co-operation; from
some, as it appears, through mere attachment to the chiefs of the two houses of
Percy and Neville; from the majority of Catholics, who cherished a hope of
relieving themselves from persecution, and restoring the ancient worship; and
from numbers - men of generous and chivalrous feelings - who offered to risk
their lives and fortunes for the deliverance from prison of the young Queen. The first meetings of the conspirators were held at the
Earl of Northumberland's seat near Topcliffe, whence the
two Earls published a manifesto in which they declared that they intended to
attempt nothing against the Queen
to whom they avowed unshaken allegiance but that their only object was as just
stated:

"We, Thomas, Earl of
Northumberland, and Charles, Earl of Westmorland, the Queen's true and faithful
subjects, to all that came of the old Catholic Religion, know ye that we, with
many other well-disposed persons, as well of the Nobility as others, have
promised our Faith to the Furtherance of this our good meaning. Forasmuch as
divers disordered and well-disposed persons about the Queen's Majesty, have, by
their subtle and crafty dealings to advance themselves, overcome in this Realm,
the true and Catholic Religion towards God, and by the same abused the Queen,
disordered the Realm, and now lastly seek and procure the destruction of the
Nobility; We, therefore, have gathered ourselves together to resist by force,
and the rather by the help of God and you good people, to see redress of these
things amiss, with the restoring of all ancient customs and liberties to God's
Church, and this noble Realm; lest if we should not do it ourselves, we might be
reformed by strangers, to the great hazard of the state of this our country,
whereunto we are all bound. God save the Queen."

There can be no doubt that one of their
objects was to carry off Mary Queen of Scots from her prison at Tutbury.Mary was hurriedly moved
south to Coventry, arriving there on 25 Nov.

Queen
Elizabeth received repeated intimations of the Earls' disaffection, and the two were summoned
them to Court to answer for their conduct. They had already gone too far to trust themselves in the
Queen's
hands, and they, therefore, preferred to die fighting in the field rather than
on the scaffold. This royal order precipitated the rising before their plans
were fully matured, or the probable strength of the forces at their command had
been calculated.

One of the
instigators of this outbreak was Leonard Dacre, uncle of the little lad on whose
untimely death, caused by the fall of a vaulting horse, the great estate of
Dacre of the North had fallen to three co-heiresses. Leonard Dacre "stomached it
much", says Camden, "that so goodly an inheritance should fall to his nieces".
He assumed the title of Lord Dacre, and claimed the estates as heir in tail
male.

He instigated the two earls to rise; then betrayed them to
Elizabeth, whom
he persuaded to entrust to him a share in putting down the rising. He seized his
nieces' estates, fortified Naworth Castle, and collected some 3000 men who
rallied to the old border slogan of "A read Bull, a read Bull". Lord Scrope,
relying on Dacre's loyalty, moved out from Carlisle to intercept the two earls,
should they march for Scotland, leaving Bishop Best in command of the castle of
Carlisle. He was recalled by rumour of a plot to seize the castle and murder the
Bishop.

Among the disaffected
Richard Norton of Norton Conyers, Co. York, was one of the most eager for
immediate action together with several of his sons, his brother Thomas and other
relations. Richard Norton was a personage of note in the country.
Descended from the ancient family of Conyers, he was a member of the Council for
the North temp Henry VIII and
Edward VI, Governor of Norham
Castle and High Sheriff of Yorkshire at the time of the rebellion. He was
married to Susan Neville, fifth dau. of Richard Neville, Lord
Latimer.

OldRichard Norton was at Topcliffe - one of the residences of the
Earl of
Northumberland, when the Earl, acting under fear of immediate arrest, left that
place in company with Norton and joined the Earl of Westmoreland at Brancepeth. Thomas
Markenfeld, the Tempests, John Swinburne and Westmorland's
uncles had assembled there with great numbers of armed retainers. Northumberland thought the time inopportune for insurrection but the fiery
eagerness of Norton and his sons to begin the struggle urged on the two Earls
who were nominally their leaders. They
were still uncertain whether to flee, to fight or submit. In a forceful letter
the
Earl of Sussex gave
them a final chance before proclaiming them as outlaws, but at Brancepeth Lady
Westmorland swayed the waverers, when it seemed they might once more
depart to their houses, and in tears harangued them: ‘We and our country
were shamed for ever, that now in the end we should seek holes to creep into'.They marshaled their army and took the field with
the avowed object of restoring the religion of their ancestors.

At the head of a small body of armed horsemen
they marched to Durham and their first step was the occupation of that city. The Earls
of Northumberland and
Westmoreland entered the Cathedral with their followers armed to the
teeth. Lady
Northumberland and Lady Westmoreland were with the troops when they took
the city of Durham and sacked the cathedral there, tearing up all the
English translations of the Bible and all the Reformation prayer books
they could find. Behind
them old Richard Norton followed with massive gold crucifix hanging from
his neck and carrying an old banner of the "Pilgrimage
of Grace" which displayed the crucifixion with Christ's five wounds. The Bishop Whittingham was in the South.
Whittingham did not appear on the scene till the trouble was over and only one
dignitary, George Clyffe, is heard of. The insurgents after their entrance to
the Cathedral threw down the Communion Table and tore the English Bible and
Prayer Book. They then proceeded to erect two altars, one in the old place of
the high altar, and one in the south transept. One of the great stone altar
slabs was brought from behind the house of the Prebendary of the first stall and
the other was discovered in the Centry garth under a heap of rubbish. The
people of the town gave their help in removing the ponderous stones and masons
were induced to set them up. On 30 Nov 1569 Mass was sung with the old
ceremonies. They retained possession of the Cathedral, the parish churches for
ten or twelve days. They then marched southward, restoring the
ancient service at Staindrop, Darlington, Richmond, and Ripon, as far as Bramham
Moor, where their forces amounted to four thousand foot and seventeen hundred
horse, well mounted.

The
Earl of Sussex, in
York, was loyal to the
Queen but was powerless to act without reinforcements from the
South. He was short of horsemen, and in any case was concerned that his own men
would defect to the rebels if they had a chance. As he wrote to Sir William Cecil,
Elizabeth's Secretary of State, on 20 Nov:

"He is a rare bird that, by
one means or another, hath not some of his with the two Earls, or in his
heart wisheth not well to the cause they pretend." Unfortunately, Sussex
himself was a case in point: his half-brother Egremont Ratcliffe was
involved in the rebellion, and the Queen was suspicious of Sussex's own
loyalty.

It would take some time to prepare
an army and send it North, but the
Queen dispatched her trusted advisor, Sir Ralph Sadler, to York; he arrived
there on 24 Nov, accompanied by
Lord Hunsdon, Warden of the East March. Sadler quickly wrote to the
Queen to reassure her of
Sussex's loyalty, and
to support his view that confronting the rebels would be unwise. Sadler estimated the rebels' force at
1000 horse and 6000 foot;
Sussex had less than half that number available. Sadler also commented revealingly to
Cecil on 6 Dec
(Sadler's State Papers, Vol. II, p. 55):

"There be not in all this
country ten gentlemen that do favour and allow of her Majesty's proceedings
in the cause of religion...".

The rebels proposed to proceed to York, in
the hope of taking the episcopal city; but receiving
intelligence that Walter Devereux,
Earl of Essex had raised a powerful army against them, they
turned first to Raby Castle one of the Earl of Westmorland's seats and thence to
Barnard Castle which was shut against them by Sir George Bowes and his
brother, and which they
besieged for eleven days before the fortress surrendered on honourable terms.

They then advanced to Clifford Moor, near Wetherby, where they found their
troops consisted of 4000 foot and 600 horse only. Disappointed in the support
they expected both in men and money, Westmorland began so visibly to despond
that many of his men shrunk away, though Northumberland still kept resolute and
was master of the field till the 13 Dec when
Essex, been reinforced, marched out of York at
the head of 7,000 men followed by a still larger army of another 12,000 under the Earl Of
Warwickand the Lord AdmiralClinton. On
Dec 17, on Croft Bridge, Sir George Bowes met the
Queen's leader, the Earl of Sussexand Sir Ralph Sadler. The rebels retreated northward first to Raby then to Auckland
and Hexham and lastly to Naworth Castle, where the wily Dacre gave them but short shelter; he was in no mood to
compromise himself. They disbanded their forces, and with a number of attendants
fled to Liddisdale, Scotland. Most of the insurgents were killed
or captured in flight. Among the prisoners were Simon Digby of Aiskew, and
John
Fulthorpe of Iselbeck, Esquires, Robert Pennyman of Stokesley and Thomas
Bishop of Pocklington, gentlemen, who were imprisoned in York Castle,
and afterwards hanged, headed, and quartered; and, according to the barbarous
custom of that age, their heads were set up on the four principal gates of the
city.

Sir
George Bowes

(1527-1580)

Steward of Barnard Castle for the Queen, sworn enemy of the Percies, the
Nevilles, and the Dacres. his home at Streatlam was destroyed during the
Northern Rebellion.

The
Queen had
discovered Dacre's double dealings: she gave Lord Hunsdon peremptory orders to
apprehend that "cankred subtill traitor", as she called him. Leonard Dacre collected 3000 fierce Cumbrians, and gave battle to a detachment of the
royal army, under Lord Hunsdon, at Gelt's Bridge; but, after a fiercely
contested fight, he was defeated. Among the insurgents were many women, who
fought with a courage and determination that inflamed and animated their male
companions to dare or to die. Dacre escaped and fled to
Scotland, and these to Flanders, where he
died in exile, in 1575. On Lord Hunsdon's
intercession the
Queen pardoned the borderers who fought for Dacre. Locally
the Rising of the North is known as "Dacre's Raid".

The Earl of Northumberland was captured and shut up by the
Regent Moray at Lochleven and in 1572 he was given up to Elizabeth and after being led
through Durham, Raby and Topcliffe, he was conveyed to York, where
he expiated his crime on the scaffold without the formality of a trial, beheaded in the Pavement at York
22
Aug 1572. His head was set on a high pole over Micklegate Bar, where it
remained for about two years, and was then stolen in the night by some persons
unknown. (quote from Allen's History of the County of York) His body was buried
without any memorial in the church of St. Crux. His countess escaped to Flanders.

Lord Westmorland succeeded in effecting
his escape to Flanders; and subsisted on a miserable pittance
from the King of Spain, dying penniless and forgotten on 16th
Nov 1601.

Though the insurrection was suppressed so easily the
Earl of Essex and Sir
George Bowes put vast numbers to death. Sixty-six people were executed at
Durham, many others were executed at York and some were removed to London.

Richard Norton, his sons,
Christopher and Marmaduke, and his brother Thomas
Norton, and about fifty others of noble extraction or of other distinction were
tainted of high treason 7 Nov 1569 and their possessions forfeited. Richard Norton fled to Flanders where doubtless he rejoined the
Earl of Westmorland, and
died there in poverty 9 Apr 1585 (aged 91), the Patriarch of the Rebellion. His brother
Thomas was hanged and quartered in the presence of his nephew Christopher at Tyburn on 27 May 1570. The fate on the sons of
Richard Norton
was as follows: Francis, the eldest, was a fugitive with his father; John, the second, was of Ripon, was not implicated;
Edmund, the third, ancestor of the Lords Grantly, was of Clowbeck, Co.
York, and died there in 1610, not implicated; William, the fourth, was tried with his uncle
Thomas and brother Christopher but
was pardoned; George, the fifth, was a fugitive with his father; Thomas, the sixth, died without issue, was not implicated;
Christopher, the seventh, was hanged and quartered with his uncle Thomas, at
Tyburn, 27 May 1570;
Marmaduke, the eighth, pleaded guilty but was pardoned and died at Stranton
where he was buried 4th Nov 1594. He was kept a prisoner in the Tower,
however, until 1572. Sampson, the ninth, and youngest son, was a fugitive with his father and was at
Mechlin in 1571, then a pensioner of the King of Spain.
Richard Norton had seven daughters, all well married.

Thus ended the Rising of the
North, the last open attempt made by the Catholics to re-establish the faith of
their fathers in this kingdom. Instead of helping their cause it brought untold
sufferings upon innumerable families, and the publication of a bull from the
Pope, in which Elizabeth was declared guilty of heresy, and her English subjects
absolved from their allegiance, only served to increase the burdens and
persecutions under which they groaned. Little mercy was shown to any person
implicated in the rising; upwards of 800 perished on the gallows, and 57
noblemen and gentlemen were attainted by parliament, and their estates
confiscated. Severe penal enactments were passed, by which anyone refusing to
attend the reformed service was liable to fine and imprisonment; to become a
priest, or to harbour one, or be present at mass, were crimes punishable with
death. At York alone, 28 priests were hanged, bowelled, and quartered for
exercising their sacerdotal functions, 11 laymen were executed for harbouring
priests, and one woman was barbarously pressed to death for the same crime.